This invention relates to telecommunications equipment.
Maintenance termination units (MTUs) are utilized in telecommunications equipment to disconnect the customer from the network in order to determine if any problems are on the customer side or network side of the equipment (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,809 issued to Brunssen). Solid state protectors are used to short incoming signals to ground when excess current or voltage appears on the line (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,510 issued to Dickey et al.). Usually, the MTU and protector are mounted in separate positions within an enclosure on the side of a customer's house (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,504 issued to Collins et al.).
In order to reduce the overall size and cost of telecommunications equipment, it has been proposed to combine both the MTU and protector into a single package. U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,662 issued to DeBalko et al. discloses such a package where a surge protector module and a circuit board including the MTU are inserted into an array of spring contacts formed on the base of a 5-pin package.
It is desirable to provide an alternative design for combining an MTU and protector, as well as a convenient and economical method for manufacturing such a device.